On the Shores of Sotkajärvi
by Melody Lepetit
Summary: Hermione and Severus escape Wizarding Britain after the Final Battle only to find themselves neighbours in a place neither of them thought anyone else would find. Rated M for sexual situations including cuckolding. You have been warned.
1. Prologue

Written for the SSHG prompt fest on Livejournal for Summer 2015, the artists/authors have been revealed so I can now post it here.

Prompt by iqeret can be found as a final author's note. Many thanks go to HikoriChan and AdelaideArcher for beta work as well as to KrissyCits for cheerleading. Without those ladies this my very first work of fanfiction would never have been.

 **On the Shores of Sotkajärvi**

 **Prologue**

 _Four Months after the Final Battle_

"Miss Granger?" the Mediwitch called.

Hermione rose from her seat in the waiting room at St. Mungo's and walked towards the door the Mediwitch was gesturing to. "That's me," she said.

"Right this way, my dear," said the Mediwitch, a short dumpy blonde woman with startling green eyes. The way they sparkled reminded Hermione of Harry's eyes. She led Hermione into a small room with a raised padded bench against one wall. Two chairs, one on wheels, sat to each side of a desk. "Have a seat."

Hermione sat in the wheelless chair as the mediwitch pulled a scroll towards her and glanced at it briefly. "According to your chart, you're here to get some fertility testing done. You've reported some irregularities with your menstrual cycle. Can you give me some more details? Then we will get you up on the table and do an exam."

"Well, after the Battle of Hogwarts I noticed that my cycle was very irregular: it came nearly every other week, then it lasted for three weeks straight and was the most painful cycle of my life. After that it stopped. It hasn't come in about six weeks now." Hermione fidgeted nervously in her seat as she explained all this to the Mediwitch, who took a few brief notes on Hermione's chart.

After describing her symptoms, Hermione took off her robes and put on the dreaded paper hospital gown. She climbed onto the bench and waited for the Mediwitch to finish making her notations on the scroll of parchment.

"Let's do a few diagnostic spells and see what's causing this problem. Have you been sexually active during this time? Is there a chance that you haven't had a cycle because you're currently expecting a baby?" She waved her wand over Hermione's abdomen as she spoke and the results showed in shimmering black letters in the air before being transcribed via another spell onto the parchment.

"Yes, we had sex a couple of times, my boyfriend and I, but we haven't in few months since there was never any way to tell if I would start bleeding," explained Hermione. "Those two times that we did engage in intercourse we always used a contraceptive potion and spells. I know my boyfriend wants children, but with all the chaos of rebuilding we knew that it just wasn't the time for an unplanned pregnancy. What do those results mean?" she asked hurriedly at seeing the crestfallen look on the Mediwitch's face.

The Mediwitch cleared her throat and said, "It appears that you are unable to conceive children, my dear. I am so sorry. There has been some serious damage to your uterus. It is impossible to tell what it was caused by - it could have been dark magic from the Battle of Hogwarts, or a repercussion from the effects of You-Know-Who's vanquishment - but most of your uterus has been destroyed. I expect what you thought was menstruation was the dissolved portions of your uterus. There is only a very small amount of your uterus left. I recommend that we remove what is left of the tissue now so that it doesn't necrotize and cause you any more pain or sickness. Is that alright with you, my dear?"

Hermione's face paled and she nodded slowly, feeling dreadful about having to tell Ron she could not be the mother of his children. Her chance at being a mother and therefore a proper wife in Ron's eyes just went out the window. "Sweet Circe, uhm... remove the remains... oh gosh yes, do what needs to be done," Hermione mumbled with tears in her eyes. She clutched at her hair and looked at the Mediwitch in distress. "I'm sorry, so this means I can never have biological children? I must say this is well, uhm, unexpected, and…" Hermione burst into tears. "It's probably the end... Oh I shouldn't tell you these things. Forgive me, I'll keep quiet now and allow you to perform the procedure," Hermione gasped through her tears. Hermione had never felt that drive that so many women feel to have children; but she knew she was young and maybe when she was closer to 30 she would feel some sense of loss at her inability to biologically have children. Perhaps she would look into magical adoption of a Muggleborn witch or wizard to keep them out of an orphanage. She filed the idea away for further perusal later, and lay back and put her feet in the stirrups.

A few waves of the Mediwitch's wand later and the last remnants of her destroyed uterus were disposed of. She dressed, thanked the woman, and left in a daze.

At the hospital Apparation point, she turned on the spot and Disapparated. She appeared again in the storeroom of Weasley Wizard Wheezes near the stairs going up to the twins' apartment above the shop.

She slowly climbed the stairs, disabling the wards on the apartment door by rote, and called out, "Fred, George, are you there?" She searched the apartment and didn't find either of them. She assumed they were downstairs in the joke shop and that it must be busy for both of them to be there so early in the morning, but that could be expected due to the rush of students wanting to buy joke supplies before the school term started on the fifteenthth of September. It was third of September, two days after the school term would have normally started, but some of the more major repairs to the castle had taken longer than Professor McGonagall had thought they would.

Hermione sat on the sofa in their sitting room and bawled, finding it hugely cathartic to get out all the emotions she was feeling. She knew her relationship with Ron was essentially over from this day forward, but she still had no idea how she would going to tell him what had happened at St. Mungo's today. Sobs were still wracking her small frame when the twins came upstairs for lunch.

They rushed to her and gathered her up in their arms. "What's wrong?" Fred asked.

"Who hurt you?" asked George at the same time.

"I just got back from S-S-S-St . Mungo's, I h-had my examination today. M-m-my uterus was-" she heaved a huge shuddering sob, "destroyed in the final battle and the remainder of it had to be r-r-removed immediately to keep me from-" she gasped for breath, "developing more health problems." She slowly stopped sobbing and George brought her a cup of tea exactly how she enjoyed it.

Hermione had thought to go straight to the twins as they had become her confidantes. She wasn't always comfortable telling Ron all her feelings, and sometimes it was better to vent her frustrations with him to his brothers than to the source himself. Ron had a good habit of turning things around and making Hermione feel guilty about the things he had done wrong. Fred and George understood their little brother's shortcomings and were happy to provide a safe place for Hermione's emotional outpourings. It had all started when she began helping them with some of their more difficult ideas for shop items. She also helped them with those items aimed specifically at female jokesters, such as lip balm that changed colour with the wearer's mood and another variety that was meant to give to someone else as a joke to expand their lips, similar to the Ton-Tongue Toffee.

She sipped her cup of tea. "Could you please not tell your brother? I need some time to come to terms with how to tell him. He's going to be so devastated," she said. Once she'd calmed down, she hugged them both and Apparated home.

Hermione stood wringing her hands and pacing the length of her small flat. Dinner of roast potatoes and chicken was waiting on the table for Ron to arrive. He'd asked her to prepare a romantic dinner for Friday night to be ready at six. He'd said to dress nicely and she was wearing a black Rockabilly style dress with white polka dots and a faux corset closure. The white of the petticoat peeped under the hem of the skirt as she whirled around and paced back towards the door. Hermione Granger was nervous about this dinner: it wasn't often that Ron asked her to make dinner for them. He usually prefered to eat at the Burrow, saying he prefered his mother's cooking.

At five past six Ron finally knocked on the door to her flat. "I cooked dinner and we need to have a chat," she told him after she had invited him inside, hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Okay, come on, then, let's eat," said Ron, going straight to the table and piling food onto his plate. He didn't even wait for Hermione as he started shoving food in his mouth.

Hermione sat across from him and served herself some of the food. She looked at him and thought that maybe their talk should wait until after dinner, or at least until he had finished shoveling himself full of the food she offered. She picked at her dinner and Ron didn't even notice.

When he finished he said, "I'm glad you called me over. I've had something I wanted to ask you for a while now." He got down on one knee next to her chair and pulled out a small box. "Hermione, I love you. I want you to be the mother of my children. Will you do me the honour of being my wife?" He held up a ring with a small ruby set into a white gold band, and then slipped it on her finger.

Tears filled her eyes and he smiled brightly up at her. "Are those tears of joy?" he asked hesitantly. She shook her head.

"I have important news that you need to hear and then if you still want to be married to me, then yes, I will become your wife." She took his hand and led him to the sofa. "Ron, I went to the hospital last month to get tested, to find out why my womanly problems have been worsening and then stopped altogether. The results were bad. I can... I can never have children Ron," she choked. "The final battle destroyed my uterus and the remains of it were removed. There was nothing that could have been done to save it. I am so sorry to tell you that even if we were to get married, I could never give you the children you desire."

Ron stood up, his face like a thunder cloud. "WHAT?" he shouted. "Why didn't you tell me this immediately when you found out? Why wait until I've spent all that money I was saving on a ring for you? Did you think you could get away with it, trick me or something, marry me and then tell me later that you couldn't have children? We're through! If you can't have children and don't have the decency to tell me right away when you find out, then I have no use for you! I want children Hermione - lots of children - and that means I need a wife who can provide them. I never want to see you again." He spun on his heel and Apparated away with a loud pop.

The next morning Hermione received Howlers from Molly and Ginny Weasley accusing her of trying to trap Ronald into a childless marriage. She didn't understand his reaction and she had barely stopped sobbing from the night before. Sure, she hadn't immediately told him, but she had told him as soon as he proposed. Too little, too late, she supposed.

As the weeks after she and Ronald broke up went by, it became increasingly obvious to Hermione that she must leave Wizarding Britain. It seemed no matter where she went, she met a Weasley son or daughter-in-law and the lot of them made her life a living hell. The only ones on her side were the twins. Harry wanted to remain her friend, but was heavily swayed by Ginny and Molly, the love of his life and the only mother figure he had ever known.

After two months of this treatment, Hermione could not take it anymore and she decided to look up alternative places to live with a magical community. She came across a brief reference to Mägikylä on the shores of Sotkajärvi in Lapland in Finland and she decided to set out and see if it was there. Hermione had read a book called _Magical Communities Past and Present_ in the Hogwarts library during the summer after her sixth year. She was trying to ensure they didn't camp anywhere near magical folk when they were going to be on the run during their seventh year.

Two months later she arrived, in the middle of a raging blizzard, after finally finding her way there and through all the magical protections surrounding the place. She bought a building that had a store in the front and a small but cosy apartment in the back and set about creating a life for herself. There was maybe one hundred inhabitants in the small village; most were magical or the squib children of magical parents.

Hermione used the storefront to sell hats and other knit and crochet goods, calling it The Needle Village Shoppe.

A/N: Sotkajärvi means Duck Lake in Finnish.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Severus walked calmly away from the little bookstore in Prague. He'd finally got his hands on a copy of _Magical Communities Past and Present_. He'd been travelling through the European mainland for nearly a year since recovering from Nagini's bite.

 _Fangs rushed towards his neck. Pain lanced through him. He heard the blasted snake slither away back to her master. He reached for the bottle of antidote he always kept upon his person these days. He was of course taking it regularly to build up his tolerance, but an additional boost right at this moment would not hurt. He slipped the empty vial back into his pocket._

 _Potter rushed in just after the snake's tail whipped around the corner. He appeared to be bleeding to death with no sign of the blood stopping any time soon despite having taken the antidote. Perhaps it was best to let Harry think that he was dead. Less complicated if the world thought he died in the final battle. He released a cloud of memories and Harry used a conjured jar to collect them. Severus closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, allowing the antidote more time to work. Harry must have thought he died, for he soon rushed away, probably to find a Pensieve._

 _Half an hour later he felt his neck knitting itself back together as the antidote finally neared the end of its work. He pushed himself up off the floor and Apparated away quickly to Dover, then immediately on to Calais, his final bit of strength used to Apparate to a small town in Belgium called Marchin, where he had long ago built a safe house._

 _He recovered there using the potions he had stored, and used his additional ingredients to brew more to regain his strength. He also exercised daily by running around the small Muggle town and did very little socialising with the neighbours since he spoke neither French nor Dutch. Of course the Belgians in the larger towns and cities spoke English, but it suited his purpose to remain almost invisible and to have people think he was just another local. He kept to himself and was passingly polite when needed by using nods and smiles to communicate._

 _One day on his run through one the residential streets, he heard someone speaking English. He slowed and observed them from afar. Seeing only a woman speaking to a man he stopped._

" _Hello," he greeted them._

 _They turned to look at him "Hello," they said together in a questioning tone._

" _I have recently come to stay in the area for a while but have yet to learn either French or Flemish," Severus explained._

" _Oh, well, we could help you there. Why don't you come inside for a cup of tea?" the woman offered._

" _That would be lovely," he accepted and followed them inside._

 _The inside of the home was neat yet looked distinctly lived in. Severus could feel a magical energy lingering in the home, as though a witch or wizard other than himself had recently been there and performed some spell work. He knew that this was a Muggle village, so he could only assume that either these people were magical or they somehow knew of magic. Perhaps they had a magical child who attended Beauxbatons Academy of Magic._

 _He sat at the breakfast bar across from the man and extended his hand. "I'm Severi, but you can call me Sev-most people do," he said as he shook the man's hand._

 _The man replied "I'm Greg and this is my wife Rachel. We're pleased to meet you Sev." He handed Severus a cup of tea and passed the milk and sugar._

 _Severus wondered how to broach this next subject. The woman, Rachel, was eyeing him strangely, almost as though assessing his sex appeal._

 _He gathered his courage and drew his breath. "I get the feeling from this house, that you aren't Muggles, or at least you know of the magical community since I can feel the residual magic in the very air as we sit here," he said baldly._

 _Rachel gasped. "Why yes, I'm a witch and Greg's a wizard. We've never had anyone notice before. We live here in this Muggle town to keep out of sight. We heard many things recently about dark wizards in parts of Europe and we wanted to avoid all that nastiness. Please, keep our secret do not tell the neighbours about us," Rachel pleaded._

" _Your secret is safe with me," Severus replied. "I just have one favour to ask of you: it is clear to me that you're not Belgian, Rachel. Your English is without the accent that a native French speaker, like Greg here, has when speaking English. But you're not British either, so where are you from and how on Earth did you manage to learn French so quickly?"_

" _I'm from America, but I did my magical education in Canada. There was this Translation Charm created by the Charms professor there, to help the children of differing native tongues communicate. I learned to do it on myself and others as part of the sixth year Charms repertoire. Perhaps I can perform it on you so that your life in Marchin will be that much easier. As payment I only ask that you keep our secret, for we very much enjoy our quiet life here." Rachel offered all of this so quickly that Severus' head spun. He never expected such a boon and all for doing something he would have normally done anyway. The Slytherin in him leaped at the offer._

 _Greg cleared his throat. "Perhaps, Rachel dear, you could take Sev upstairs and show him your charms. I-" he coughed "-have some work to do down here."_

 _Rachel nodded her head slowly and rose from the table. Severus looked at both of them feeling slightly confused. Was there something expressly complicated about this charm that it required them leaving the kitchen? He decided to follow through and followed Rachel up the stairs._

 _She entered her bedroom and removed her robes. "Now Sev, my lovely husband is also a cuckold. He enjoys letting other men have sex with me, as he has long since failed to please me with his own pathetic excuse for a penis. His comment about showing you my 'charms' was a cue to me that I should extract payment from you for teaching you this Translation Charm in the form of sex. You fuck me until I've had as many orgasms as I can stand and then Greg, who also knows the charm, will be waiting downstairs to perform it on you, test it by speaking to you in French, and then show you how it is done in case you need to perform it on anyone else. Does this sound acceptable to you?" She smiled at him brightly as if simply offering him a biscuit to go with his tea._

 _He stuttered "Uh… uhm... acceptable... I… uh... I guess, if you're certain that Greg won't mind. I don't want to be on the end of a flash of green light when this is all said and done."_

" _Don't worry about that. I promise, he's waiting excitedly to clean your cum from my used holes and to view the whole interlude in the pensieve after you've gone." She wiggled out of her dress revealing that she wore no knickers or bra, just a set of perfectly luscious tits and a hairless snatch. She slid down onto her knees in front of him and began working the front of his robes open._

In the end, Severus had a pleasant if seemingly never ending bout of sex with the lovely minx Rachel, and found a practically salivating Greg waiting for him in the kitchen. Greg was so anxious to perform the charm and for Severus to leave that he almost forgot to test it and show Severus how it was done.

Severus could then socialise with the neighbours in Marchin for the remaining fortnight he was there before he set off to Hamburg, Vienna, and Prague in search of a permanent hiding spot.

It was in a little bookstore in Prague about two months after his encounter that he finally found the book he was searching for: _Magical Communities Past and Present_. He could now start reading up on the most secluded of these and decide where to make his permanent home. He knew that he could not return to the British Isles and with the handy Translation Charm working, as they say, like a charm, the possibilities open to him were seemingly limitless.

One place caught his attention, rumoured to be located in the North of Finland, isolated from Muggles and other Magical folks alike was Magikylä. It was a small community of witches and wizards who rarely left the shelter of their clearing in the forest on the shores of Sotkajärvi. Difficult to find and access due to numerous magical enchantments intended to keep strangers and Muggles away, it sounded like paradise to Severus and he could not wait to begin his journey north, despite the fact that winter was nearly on their doorstep here in Prague and would be in full swing in the far north reaches of Finland.

He stayed a week longer in Prague to gather some supplies and think about how he would go about getting through the wards and enchantments surrounding Magikylä and then he set out on the long journey north.

A/N: Thank you to the lovely Hikori Chan for allowing me to use her Translation Charm, the idea is completely hers and used with her permission. See it in its original format in her fic Swallows & Stars.

Translation notes: Magikylä is my own creation of a word to mean "magic village" kylä is indeed Finnish for village but Magikylä is just my own nonsense word.

Sotkajärvi is Duck Lake, a real place in Finnish Lapland


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hermione Granger had been in residence in Magikylä for a few weeks when she finally put the finishing touches on her shop. It had been a challenge to learn the language in order to communicate with the locals. Most spoke Finnish as their native language, a few Inari Sami, but finding a speaker of English was quite difficult in this remote part of Finland.

Using hand signals and with the help of the local owner of the bakery across the street from Hermione's shop and flat, she was able to learn a few simple phrases and enough vocabulary to get by. Most of the trade could be done with simply writing numbers down for prices and blessedly the currency system was still Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons, no need to worry about Muggle Euros or Pounds here in this remote wizarding community.

The shopfront next to Hermione's, which was located on the corner of Main and Second streets, was empty when she arrived. It faced a florist shop that was next to the bakery. One evening she noticed lights on in the back windows of the building, where she knew, since she had viewed both buildings before leasing the one she currently occupied, was the living space behind the storefront.

She wondered to herself when someone new had arrived in town and how she hadn't noticed. She made up her mind to discuss this matter with her friend Misty, the owner of the bakery. Hermione and Misty had become fast friends in the short time that she had been in Magikylä because Hermione had a sweet tooth and Misty a love for handmade items. They were like two peas in a pod and it soon became a regular occurrence to see Hermione sitting at a table in Misty's shop enjoying her breakfast of two luumuleipät and coffee with her charmed knitting needles or crochet hooks flying away above the seat across from her.

The following morning dawned-if one could say that: the sun doesn't properly rise this far north until after eight o'clock-and around six Hermione found her way across the dark street to the bakery. She knocked lightly on the side door, knowing that Misty would be awake inside and baking the fresh breads and pastries that she sold daily in her shop.

The door opened revealing her blonde friend in her flour covered apron. "Well, don't just stand there in the cold, come in," Misty said when she saw it was Hermione at the door.

Hermione entered and followed Misty through the hallway, where she left the tote bag she had over her shoulder, to the kitchen where she could smell the coffee already brewing away. She filled her cup and added a dash of cream and a cube of sugar, stirring it thoroughly to combine. Tea was really her preference, but it wasn't as common up here where coffee was king. That was certainly one thing that the residents of Magikylä had in common with their Finnish Muggle countrymen.

Misty looked up and noticed the bag was gone. "What are you working on today that you leave it in the hall and don't start on it immediately?" she asked.

"Oh it's nothing, just a matching set of gloves and scarf for Mrs. Ruusu. She's the most picky of all my clients you know; she has requested that I not work on it near the raw flour. She's worried about stains. Honestly, you'd think she thought I was a Muggle, or that she's a Muggle," said Hermione, clearly exasperated since everyone knew that even if flour did get on her work she thoroughly Scourgified the items before ever giving them to a client.

Standing next to a counter where cinnamon cardamom buns were rolled, cut, and rising before they needed to go into the oven. She watched as Misty placed the plum filling into a line of pastry to be formed into luumuleipät. Hermione loved watching this process because these little Finnish buns had become her breakfast of choice since moving to Magikylä.

After the luumuleipät were formed and placed on their trays in the oven, Misty poured her own coffee, black, walked with Hermione through to the front café, and sat at their favourite table. Finally, now that she had her entire focus, Hermione could ask Misty about the mystery occupant of the building next to hers.

"So last night before I was going to sleep, I noticed as I was pulling the curtains closed that there was a light on in the building next to mine. Any idea who is in there and when they arrived?" Hermione asked.

Misty was used to these seemingly random thoughts coming from Hermione early in the morning. She shrugged and replied, "Oh, just a tall, dark, and handsome stranger. He came to town a couple days ago. He stayed with the Järvinen's until the purchase of the building next to your shop was finalised." Misty was standing up and letting the chairs at the rest of the tables in the small café down and not looking at Hermione's face.

 _Tall, dark, and handsome,_ Hermione's thoughts immediately wandered. She was imagining all sorts of different men who would fit that description: was he swarthy with a beard as many of the Finnish wizards seemed to favour, or pale and dark like her most loathed professor at Hogwarts, although no one would have ever called Severus Snape handsome. Hermione however, had always loved his voice, which even when he belittled her in Potions had been the fodder for many a night's fantasy back at Hogwarts, before she and Ron got together.

 _Ron…_ She felt her eyes well with tears. She would not cry in front of Misty, she would not. No one here knew of her previous relationship, of her being one part of the Golden Trio; only the barest news of a dark wizard who was then defeated in England had made it this far north to this isolated community and she would not allow her tears to be the catalyst that brought them more information than they wanted. There was a reason they stayed isolated and out of the politics of the rest of Europe.

Hermione took a large gulp of her still hot coffee to cover the tears in her eyes. Misty turned around and saw wetness in Hermione's eyes, looking like tears. Was it something she said? Hermione hadn't told anyone much about her background when she arrived in Magikylä, just that she was a fully qualified witch with a desire to live somewhere isolated. The residents of the village thought her a bit strange and were still mostly aloof towards her, but not Misty who was an outsider herself even if Hermione didn't know.

Hermione sputtered, "Thought the coffee had cooled. I forgot about the Lämmitys Charms you have placed on all your mugs!" She wiped at her eyes and mouth with her handkerchief.

Glancing at the clock and hearing the timer go off in the kitchen, Misty said, "Well I better get back, thanks for sharing the morning with me. Be sure to come over again once the café is officially opened for the day."

They walked back out through the side hall and Hermione picked up her craft bag as she went and crossed back to her side of the street just in time to notice the sign on the neighbouring store front, which said "SS Potions Ltd" in scrawling black lettering that looked shockingly like Professor Snape's marks on her Potions essays back at Hogwarts.

Shaking her head to clear such silly thoughts from her mind, she reminded herself that Professor Snape died in the Shrieking Shack on the night of the final battle and even if he had lived, there was no way he could have found his way to the same isolated magic village where she had taken up residence just under a month ago.

A/N: Luumuleipä is a delicious plum filled pastry that we can get at our local coffee shop here in Southern Finland. It's only available from the one shop so I'm pretty sure it is unique to them, but I'm using it here in honour of my very Finnish husband who loves them dearly.

Inari Sami is a real language spoken by about 300 people in Lapland.

Translation: Lämmitys means heating in Finnish. I thought it would make a cool spell to keep the mugs heating the coffee. That way it never goes cold because we all know hot terrible cold coffee tastes.

Ruusu is Finnish for rose, and Järvinen is a real last name that means 'someone who lives by a lake', I thought it apt since Magikylä is located on the shore of a lake.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 _June_

The sun never set now. Hermione had not seen a dark sky in weeks and she was seriously starting to wonder how people survived here when it was so bright it was impossible to sleep. She was exhausted. The curtains she had, even though they were as dark as night in colour, still seemed to let the sunshine in and it had caused her to get very little sleep recently. In theory, this was not a large problem because the trade in knit and crochet hats, socks, sweaters, and scarves had dramatically reduced due to the warmth emitted by the sun, so she was relying more and more these days on the savings she had from the sale of her parents' home in England. Her choice to move to Finland was one that also necessitated leaving her parents where they were-hopefully happy in Australia without a notion that they had a beautiful, yet infertile, daughter who could never give them the grandchildren they always wanted when they knew she existed.

Hermione still hadn't set eyes on the mystery man next door, although she had seen many people going into his shop and there had been much gossip in town about his ability with the cauldron. It seemed as though he was some sort of potions genius or maybe even a Master, although he just claimed to have a natural talent, or so the gossip went.

Hermione was sitting in Misty's shop on her lunch break enjoying one of the lovely open face sandwiches on delicious fresh baked rye bread that were so common among the locals. Her crochet hook was working away across the table using the finest pale cream cotton thread and a tiny hook to crochet one of the eight tablecloths that Misty had ordered from Hermione. The secret was that Hermione was not only using magic to work the tablecloths-the thread was so fine and the needle so small that doing it by hand would have taken ages for just one much less eight-but that she was spelling the thread with a variant of _Impervious_ (or the Finnish "Torjua" or to repel) so that the tablecloths would repel food and drink spilled upon them.

hr

Severus sat in the office of his newly established Potions shop. He had finally found his way to Magikylä through the snow, woods, and enchantments in mid-February. It was now June and it seemed there was a great demand for Dreamless Sleep Potion from the villagers; apparently they used it to help them combat the constant sunshine. He flipped through the pages of the latest of a great stack of books that were piled around the room. He was researching how to make a safer, non-addictive form of the potion so that he could sell it to the villagers with a clear conscience.

He knew that he needed something that could induce sleeping, or maybe just something that decreased sensitivity to light. Temporary blindfolds... no temporary blindness just for eight hours so people could sleep. That was the trick: a potion to induce temporary blindness that allowed for people to see nothing but darkness for eight hours and thus get a healthy night of sleep.

Severus' quill scratched quickly across the scroll of parchment, writing his ideas down and puzzling out the riddle of the ingredients and method. He knew that he could create a potion to induce blindness, but limiting it to eight hours eluded him. He needed someone good at Arithmancy and perhaps even Charms to assist him in this project.

There was one glaring problem: he had remained until now a bit of a recluse. The patrons of his potions shop knew him only as Sev; they had no idea who he had been previously, just that he was a powerful wizard in need of a refuge and he was willing to provide the sleepy village with a potions shop and brew for them any potions they desired with no only condition was they must not inquire into who he was or his personal history and they must allow him to remain reclusive as was his wont to be.

Later in the day, Hermione was back at Misty's café. The locals wondered why she had a shop of her own when she spent all her time at Misty's place, but she was enjoying an early evening coffee with her tablecloths still working away. At least while she worked on Misty's tablecloths she could claim to be working on location as a reason for being in the warm bright café instead of in her own cosy shop surrounded by skeins of yarn and half-finished projects.

She was staring out the window, watching the comings and goings of the villagers along Main Street when she heard some excited chattering from the next table. She glanced over and saw a few of the locals gesturing towards her and then towards SS Potions Ltd across the road. She wondered what on earth they could be talking about that could warrant pointing at her. Hermione was still very much an outsider and since her attempts to learn the language had thus far been relatively unsuccessful, but who could blame her? A few months was not enough to learn an entirely new language, and she didn't socialise much except for with Misty, who spoke English.

Hermione paused to think about this for a moment. Misty, beloved of the locals, spoke English. She spoke fluent Finnish as well, and even some Sami, but it was the English that was so helpful to Hermione that suddenly stood out like a sore thumb in the literary hand of the village. _Why does Misty speak English and why is she so fluent? Its almost effortless for her to speak with me. Why have I never noticed this before now?_ So many questions were suddenly flying through Hermione's mind, racing from one to the next before she could even begin to think of the answers. Suddenly she knew why she had never questioned Misty's linguistic ability before: she had been so grateful that there was someone she could identify and converse with that it had slipped her mind to be surprised. She'd gone straight to gratitude.

Misty was weaving in and out of the tables making sure everyone had enough coffee and treats. She paused briefly at the table where the villagers were discussing what seemed to be Hermione and the Potions shop. One of the villagers seemed to be asking Misty a question. She looked briefly confused and then came over to Hermione's table.

"Hermione, are you by chance any good at Arithimancy?" Misty asked.

"I have studied it to the highest level available to me at the time of my education. Why?" Hermione replied.

"Well it seems as though the proprietor of the shop next to yours has need of an accomplished Arithmancer. He needs help for some potion he's trying to invent to help the villagers sleep through this unending sunlight of summer," came her reply.

"Well, I'd be happy to consult with him - you said he, right? - and help in any way I can but I have never met him," Hermione said. "Tell the villagers that if he wishes to seek my assistance, he'll have to be brave enough to come next door and talk to me about it face to face, or else I am not interested. I think I'll go back to my shop and avoid the stares. Thanks for the pleasant conversation Misty."

Hermione gathered up her things and walked out of the bakery as Misty wandered over and told the villagers what Hermione said.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Hermione was in her shop still overseeing the crochet hook working away on Misty's tablecloths. Seven of them sat ready in a pile to one side of the main counter. She was currently sitting on her stool behind the glass counter which displayed the various yarns and threads she had on hand to use for customer orders. She had very little time left to make the orders for the supplies for winter blankets. There was a huge storage place in the back filled with more and shelves lining the walls with skeins that customers could buy. Some were charmed to change colour by the wearer's mood or the weather. Others were magically warmed or cooled depending on what they were meant to be used for; still others were just plain yarns and threads to make regular everyday items from. In addition to the shelves of yarn, there were finished products on display; blankets, hats, scarves, mittens, and even slippers were displayed on stands.

The bell above the front door tinkled as someone entered the store. Hermione looked up from the yarn order in her hand and gasped. She nearly fell off her stool, her parchment fluttering to the floor. For there in the entry stood - no it couldn't be, he was dead, Harry saw him die. Then the thought came to her that no one found his body, it could be him. All these thoughts, disjointed as they were, flew through her head in a matter of seconds.

Severus had received the news from the villagers that in order to gain the assistance of the only highly educated Arithmancer in the village, he would need to visit the craft shop next to his apothecary. He was not thrilled at this idea. He would have prefered the villagers force the help to come to him. He was doing them a service after all. But a week after they told him about her existence, he finally got fed up with their complaints and decided to visit the shop next door. Plucking up his courage, he waited until early morning when the shops had just opened and decided to be the first customer of the day.

He spent a few moments looking in the window, taking in the clutter of yarns and finished products she had on display. He knew that it was cold in Lapland in the winter and considered that he might actually purchase his winter gear from this shop after he'd convinced the owner to do his bidding and help him with the blindness potion. Severus observed a blanket in what appeared to be Slytherin house colours, emerald green and silver squares alternating in a checkerboard pattern, the short ends edged with a fringe of the two yarns. It was tasteful and probably warm as the placard said it was made of cashmere and so it was presumably soft as well.

His eyes strayed to the woman behind the counter. She had very bushy looking hair, and it reminded him a bit of that bossy little swot Hermione Granger. But it couldn't be her; she was surely in Wizarding Britain, married to or nearly married to the youngest Weasley boy. Severus could see she was alone and seemed to be pouring over a parchment as she sat behind a counter filled with various fibres. He moved away from the window and into the shop via the front door, a tinkling bell heralding his arrival. He saw the shop proprietor look up from her form and he was stunned to see the face of none other than Hermione Granger.

"Well, I never expected to find you here, Miss Granger, so far from Hogwarts and the Weasley spawn," he sneered in a contemptuous voice.

The man walked further into the shop and then waved his wand at the door behind him. The click of the lock echoed in Hermione's ears. She stared at him. That voice, she knew that voice, there was only one person on earth who had a voice that could make her insides melt in just that way: Severus Snape. He was actually alive and standing before her in her very own shop, in the small village, hundreds of miles away from Scotland and the Shrieking Shack.

"How can I help you, Severus? I'm waiting for the neighbouring shopkeeper to come by and tell me what sort of Arithmancy help he needs. Do kindly unlock my shop door. How on earth did you find me here?" she rushed through the words almost as quickly as she used to recite paragraphs from books in his lessons at Hogwarts.

"Will it surprise and horrify you to know that I am the shopkeeper for whom you wait? I am the owner of the SS Potions Ltd that occupies the building next door. How could it have escaped that brilliant mind of yours? Why are you here in the middle of Finnish Lapland running a crochet and knitted goods shop?" He asked all these questions with the same tone he used when asking difficult questions in fifth year potions classes one week before OWLs.

"Well come in. Let's close the shades and go out the back and have a cup of tea. You can explain to me what assistance you need from me," Hermione said as she led the way back into her living quarters behind the shop. They passed through a magically extended storeroom into her sitting room. "Have a seat, Severus, while I get us some tea."

She walked through into the kitchen and returned a short while later with a tea service, an old fashioned tea pot covered in a knitted cosy the obvious centrepiece. She sat next to him in the matching armchair, set the tray with the tea service on the table between them, and motioned to him to start talking as she began to pour the tea.

"The villagers, it seems for years, have been taking Dreamless Sleep Potion to help combat the sunlight. You know as well as I from your studies at Hogwarts that repeatedly taking that particular brew will cause addiction and long lasting side-effects. I've decided to attempt to brew a potion to induce blindness for a specific amount of time. Such blindness potions are usually permanent and not suited for such recreational use. I need your assistance to alter the permanent blindness potion to last only for a period of eight hours so the villagers could take it and then lie down to sleep. The potion will wear off eight hours later with no after effects, and they will be ready to start their days again." He told her all of this while carefully watching her movements preparing the tea and then watching her face to see her reaction to this bizarre request of his.

Hermione watched him as he spoke, watched how his face lit up with passion and drive as he spoke about creating a potion to help people. Something, actually a few things, occurred to her during the course of his speech. Firstly, how did he end up here? Secondly, how did he speak with the villagers? Thirdly, how handsome he was and how his voice was doing marvellous things to her insides; and finally, an idea to improve upon his idea and yet she wasn't sure how to present it to him as he had always shot her down in lessons.

"Your idea is brilliant, really, Severus, but I have an alternative I'd like to propose to you," she said after a few moments consideration.

"You think my idea is brilliant but somehow you still think you could do it better," he scorned, taking a sip of his tea.

"No, not better, just different and perhaps safer," she replied, her teacup untouched on the arm of her chair.

"Well go on then, tell me what the brilliant mind of Miss Hermione Granger has come up with in the space of two minutes when I have been applying myself to this problem for weeks," Severus shot back at her.

"What if you created a light blocking potion, one that could be soaked into yarn and then knitted or crocheted into an eyemask that could be worn during sleep? Muggles often use sleep masks, but they're not necessarily the best quality. These would completely block any and all light coming into them from any source direct or indirect, and enable a restful night's sleep of any length," Hermione said and waited breathlessly for his reaction.

"That might actually work," Severus grudgingly agreed. He finished his tea and stood up. "I'll let you return to whatever it is you're doing here in this cosy shop of yours and I'll return next door to research light blocking potions and start coming up with a potential list of ingredients. I suggest you figure out how to actually create a comfortable to wear eye mask in the meantime." Severus started to head for the door back into Hermione's shop as he said this.

Hermione followed after waving her wand to banish the tea things back to the kitchen; she'd clean them up later.

Out in the main shop, Severus waved his wand to unlock her door and raise the shades that had been lowered. He swept out without another word or backwards glance.

Hermione sat down on her stool once more and summoned her parchment to her. What a frustrating man, and he didn't even answer most of my questions, especially how he communicates with the locals. She made up her mind to get that particular gem of information out of him one way or another during the course of their project.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

A fortnight later, Hermione was collecting an assortment of yarns of various thickness, colour, and composition. She had wool, acrylic, cotton, and various blends of the three. As thin as sewing thread and as thick as rope. Hermione piled all the skeins into a tote bag as well as the various knitting needles and crochet hooks she would need before she threw it over her shoulder.

Today she was wearing a long white maxi skirt and a ribbed blue tank top with white flip flops and with her fabulous multicoloured tote, she was all ready to go meet Severus. He had sent word yesterday that he was finally ready to test his new potion on some of her yarns to see if it worked.

Hermione stepped out the back door of her building and across the brief stretch of ground to the back door of Severus' building. She knocked gently twice on the door and waited for him to open it. He appeared quickly with his hair tied back and his shirt sleeves rolled up.

"Good morning, Severus," Hermione said in greeting as he motioned her over the threshold.

"Good morning, Miss Granger," he replied closing the door and following her into his living quarters at the back of the shop.

"Hermione, please. We're both adults in a place where no one knows that we knew each other previously and Miss Granger is a bit formal for this place, don't you agree?" Hermione said with a smile as she waited in what appeared to be a dining room and kitchen combined. There appeared to be Muggle appliances in the kitchen portion of the room, but Hermione knew they must be just like all the other appliances in the village and were charmed magical versions.

"Follow me through here then, into the lab, Hermione," Severus said with a smirk. He had secretly been hoping to forgo the formality but was unaccustomed to calling former students by their given names, despite the obvious liberty that she had taken with his given name since he walked into her shop a fortnight ago.

Hermione followed him into the most well appointed potions lab she had ever seen. She imagined it put even his private lab at Hogwarts to shame because there was no way a dungeon lab at Hogwarts could be this bright and sunny, nor could a spy have afforded all the stunning equipment that lined the walls. There were cauldrons of every metal imaginable. Scales, stirring rods, and tongs of all the best materials for potion making: blown glass, pure silver, and stainless steel for those potions that would require a metal rod but would react poorly to silver. She stood there in the door looking at the perfectly topped tables in white Italian marble and saw that there were wooden pieces and thin metal slabs that could be placed over the marble to create a working environment if one needed a surface other than marble to prepare ingredients on.

"Sweet Circe! Severus, I never imagined you would have a set-up like this. This is fantastic. No wonder Misty tells me that the villagers rave about the quality of your potions. They're totally amazed to see what fresh potions by a competent Potions Master are like compared to those they have imported previously or tried to brew for themselves." Hermione still stood in the doorway and didn't show any sign of moving off the threshold.

"Well don't just stand there gaping like a guppy out of water, Hermione, come in and show me what's in that bag of yours. You'll find a protective apron hanging on the back of the door once you close it," Severus said in a still biting tone, but there was a hint of humour in his voice and a smile trying to break free at the corner of his mouth.

Hermione quickly came in and shut the door. She took three quick steps forward and placed her tote on the marble working surface. She turned around and grabbed the apron that hung on a peg on the back of the door and put it on. Severus gathers the cauldron and ingredients needed for the first attempt at the potions.

"I am confident that I've figured out how to imbue the fibres of your yarns with the light deflecting property it needs in order to function as an eye mask. It's not a long process and potions are more effective when they are brewed fresh. I'll brew this now and in half an hour we can test it. Pick out the yarn you think will be the most popular among the residents of the village." Severus had placed a brass cauldron over medium heat and was grinding something in the mortar and pestle. Piles of other neatly prepared ingredients were set out in the order they needed to be added.

Hermione set about evaluating the yarns she had brought with her, she thought that although the villagers tended towards wool or cotton yarns, for this particular project a medium thickness acrylic might be best. It would be light weight and not irritate the sensitive skin of the villagers' eyelids.

She settled herself on a stool across the marble counter from Severus and watched him as he stirred the potion after adding the last ingredient, which turned the potion a shimmering blue the colour of the sky on a cloudless sunny day. Light purple steam was rising from it. She assumed this was all to be expected as Severus showed no signs of surprise.

"The potion needs to cool for five more minutes and then we can test it by adding one skein of yarn to be completely submerged for twenty minutes and then you can test it. I am hoping that the addition of the potion will not make the yarn more difficult to work with," he said, coming over to examine the various yarns spread before Hermione on the bench.

"I think this is the proper one to try first." She held up a skein of cream coloured acrylic yarn. "The villagers generally prefer natural fibres, but this is lighter and sturdier."

They were carefully lowering the skein into the potion with a pair of stainless steel tongs five minutes later when they smelled the acrid smell of burning plastic and heard a hiss that sounded like acid was burning through something. Quickly Severus lifted the yarn out of the cauldron and swore roundly.

"Bloody hell, well it looks like this combination of fibre and potion was a complete failure," he said, moving quickly to his wand to vanish the offending burnt blackened mess.

Hermione cast an Air Freshening Charm and said "Well, good thing I brought along a lot of options. Do you have the ingredients on hand to brew another batch of this?" she indicated the remains of the potion at the bottom of the cauldron.

"Indeed, I do," Severus conceded.

They spent the remainder of the morning brewing and testing more yarns in the potion. A stack of used cauldrons and potions ingredient waste stood at one end of the bench. They had discovered that any dyed yarn burnt on contact, so after lunch Hermione had returned to her store to find the homespun undyed yarns and bring some of those to test.

They had enjoyed a brief lunch at Severus's dining table consisting of smoked salmon on rye bread washed down with water as was a favourite of the locals, which they both had discovered since moving to Magikylä.

By seven in the evening they had run out of options. Either the potion was flawed or Hermione's idea was flawed. Severus maintained that it could not possibly be his potion causing this setback. Hermione remained adamant that her idea was perfectly logical and sensible.

"I think this requires some more research and that we should clear down and try again tomorrow or some other day, Severus. We haven't made any more discoveries since we discovered that it was all dyes that were making the acrid burning plastic smell," Hermione said after yet another failed attempt. Her hair was in disarray, and her face and hands were streaked with soot. "We've vanished a lot of yarn and used plenty of your stock today. Those villagers better be grateful for all the trial and error we've gone through," she huffed, pushing her hair out of her face.

"I am sure we can recoup the cost of all this 'trial and error,' as you say, by increasing the price of the finished product," Severus replied calmly.

"If you think that they'll pay more for it, you must be delusional. I can never get them to agree on a price. I still don't understand _how_ you communicate with them. I've been here nearly half a year now and I still can't speak the language," Hermione almost whinged.

She started to gather up her remaining yarns and all her tools in preparation for her departure. Severus sensed this and found that he did not want her to leave or their evening to end, for he had had a surprisingly good time with her. She was intelligent company and knew when to hold her tongue if he was busy with some volatile ingredient.

"Go to sauna with me," Severus blurted out before he could gain control of his tongue.

"Sauna? With you?" Hermione's heart was pounding. She knew what sauna meant: sauna meant getting naked and sitting in a hot room with other people. She had thus far avoided it with anyone who'd asked, even Misty. Hermione did not much like the thought of getting naked in front of anyone, but her schoolgirl crush on Severus had been developing over the last fortnight into more, as she saw him less and less as her professor and more like a friend.

"Yes, with me, why?" Severus looked slightly crestfallen for a moment until he controlled his face. "Don't you like sauna?"

"I've never been," she mumbled, "but I'd love to go with you, Severus."

"Wonderful, I'll go start the fire in the kiuas." He went out into his living quarters and Hermione found herself alone in the messy lab. To keep herself occupied and to distract herself from the idea that she'd just agreed to get naked with Severus, she started cleaning up the mess they'd created.

A/N: Kiuas is the Finnish term for the stove that heats the stones upon which water is thrown to create the steam of sauna. These can be heated by either wood or electricity.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Twenty minutes later, Severus returned to the lab to find it empty and sparkling clean. All of the used equipment was neatly in the correct place, the ingredient detritus was gone, and Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

"Hermione, where are you?" he called out, stepping back into the hallway. There was no reply. He walked towards the kitchen just in time to hear the back door click shut.

"Oh, Severus, I thought I would make it back before you returned. I wanted to take my supplies back and retrieve the things I'll need to control my hair." She gestured to her mass of hair made frizzy from the potions steam. "This is going to require a bit of effort to calm back into anything resembling a manageable state."

"Show me what you use on it, and perhaps I could concoct something better suited to your particular hair type," Severus offered, secretly hoping that it would be yet another reason to spend time with this strong willed yet charming young woman.

Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of Muggle shampoo that worked moderately well on her mass of curls. As she handed him the bottle, the contents of the bag became visible. Severus saw a mass of emerald green and silver in the bottom of her bag.

"What's this? Muggle shampoo? You're a witch. Surely you know it is possible to brew hair potions and the like. Didn't you use Sleekeazy's Hair Potion in your fourth year?" he asked, examining the Muggle concoction in his hands.

"I did, but it took far too much product and time for it to be useful as a daily way to control my hair. I have been shampooing with that and braiding my hair when I sleep to keep it contained for years," she replied.

"I'll whip something up for you after we finish our sauna," he promised. "Let's go, it should be ready now."

Hermione followed him down a hallway and through what appeared to be his bedroom.

"Sorry to have to lead you through here, the sauna is attached to my en suite and there is not another access point," he apologised.

"Don't worry about it. It seems that you're building is laid out identically to mine, we just utilize the spaces differently is all," she said while following him into the spacious bathroom.

There was a small area for the toilet blocked off to give a sense of privacy and a huge showerhead positioned directly above a drain in the floor. To one side of the shower there was a glass door which led into the sauna. The sink was located across from the door of the sauna and beside the opening to the toilet area. There was enough space for a bench and hooks in the wall for removing clothing and placing towels to wait. Hermione set her tote on the bench and started removing her clothes. This was fairly quick process because she was only wearing a skirt, tank top and bra. Hermione did not glance over at Severus beside her who was also removing his clothing in a quick and efficient manner. As soon as Hermione's clothes were folded neatly she grabbed the towel off the peg marked _guest_ and wrapped it around her body in a self-conscious way.

Severus glanced briefly at Hermione and seeing that she was hiding herself behind a towel, decided to attempt to make this first portion as easy as possible for them both by stepping under the shower head which immediately started pouring water heated to the perfect temperature down upon his head. As soon as he was thoroughly rinsed, he stepped through the door into the sauna.

"Take your time, I know the first time can be a bit unsettling. The showerhead will spray at a temperature charmed to please you-neither too hot nor too cold. When you have thoroughly rinsed and saturated your hair and body please feel free to join me," he said quietly and shut the door to the sauna so that Hermione could have a moment of privacy.

Drawing upon her Gryffindor courage, she placed the towel back on the hook and stepped under the showerhead. She braced herself, not quite believing that the magical showerhead would know what temperature was most pleasing to her. She let out a small gasp of delight when water of the perfect temperature flowed over her head and down her body. It took her a few minutes of standing under the water to brave entering the sauna. She knew when she opened the door and stepped in that Severus, a man she had recently come to think about more and more as a man and less as a teacher, would get a full view of her body fresh from the shower.

Severus sat on the bench in the sauna and threw some water on the hot stones. The steam hit his body and felt wonderfully bracing. His first time experiencing it was memorable in that he thought he'd never get used to it; in fact, he lasted only a few minutes before he decided the entire practice was ridiculous. After trying a few more times, he soon learned to really enjoy a good hot sauna. He had consulted with some of the villagers and found out that the first time he hadn't allowed the sauna to heat up enough and therefore it was a mild sauna and those were often less enjoyable.

As he sat there waiting for her, he thought about the brief glimpse of her curves he had seen when she was removing her clothing and focusing herself on not looking at him. He knew it was not the most gentlemanly thing to do, but he could not resist peeking at her from behind his hair. Now his body seemed to be ignoring the Finnish ideal that sauna was not a sexual occasion, it was simply for the purpose of cleansing the body. Severus found himself waiting with great anticipation for Hermione to buck up her courage and step through the glass door into the sauna.

Severus threw some more water onto the hot stones just as Hermione opened the door. He realized at that moment how stunningly beautiful and perfectly to his taste she was. He also noticed that he had half an erection and if she lowered her eyes even slightly she would be sure to notice.

Deciding distraction was the best policy, he said"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to be met at the door with a huge wave of hot steam. Please close the door and sit down. The higher up the benches you go the more intense the experience. I suggest choosing the middle bench for your first time in a sauna."

Hermione closed the door tightly and sat down on the wooden bench. Severus was seated on the top bench. She noticed that he looked a bit flushed when she opened the door, but figured that was from all the heat in the room. He didn't seem to notice her body and Hermione didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

They sat there together in the hot sauna for a while, with Severus occasionally throwing additional water onto the kiuas. There was surprisingly little feeling of awkwardness during this time and Hermione felt herself start to relax deeply. She shifted slightly to the left and the side of her breast brushed Severus's knee.

Hermione blushed Gryffindor scarlet. "Oh, sorry, Severus, I must have started to fall asleep. It is so relaxing and peaceful in here." She sat up straight again and moved a little ways away from him. She chanced a look at his face only to realize that his groin was right in front of her face and he seemed to be aroused. Not that Hermione was an expert; she'd only ever been with Ron and he was pretty much the same size aroused or not.

Severus tried to control his reaction. He took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts before responding. The touch of her breast on his knee had nearly robbed him of his good sense. He had been watching the rise and fall of her breasts for a few minutes before she nearly fell over.

"If you're feeling so hot and relaxed as to fall asleep, Miss Granger, might I suggest you rinse off and wash that mess you call hair. It is traditional to return to the sauna after washing in order to bring out the after sweat." He scowled and looked fixedly at the wall in front of him.

"Hermione, you said you would call me Hermione. I am sorry if I embarrassed you with my lack of grace, but it does seem a tad ridiculous for you to call a woman you've been sitting naked in a hot steam room for half an hour with by her surname, don't you agree, Severus?" Hermione put a subtle emphasis on his name before she stood up and slipped out the door.

Hermione took a deep breath and stepped under the spray, she found soap and her shampoo on a shelf in the corner. She hadn't noticed Severus put her bottle of shampoo there. As she worked the lather into her hair, she pondered how she might convince Severus to give her a chance. They worked well together in the lab today, and he had been perfectly nice up until he called her _Miss Granger_ a few moments ago. As she rinsed her hair, a plan came to her: she would just be straightforward with him and ask him what he thought of going for a roll in the hay with her. There could be no strings attached if that's what he wanted. They could be neighbours that just had sex occasionally. It made sense to her since besides Misty he was the only person in town she could hold a conversation with. Hermione smiled to herself as she stepped back through the door only to run straight into Severus knocking them both down in the process.

Severus had an idea too: he would seduce Hermione. He wanted to be with her, wanted more than just casual sex, but he wasn't about to let her get away if casual sex was all she wanted. _Time to see just a bit more of her delectable body_. He stood and made his way to the glass door of the sauna just in time to be bowled over by a slippery wet Hermione and try as he might to keep his balance, they somehow both ended up on the floor.

"Well, if you wanted to be on top all you had to do was ask," Severus said with a small chuckle, watching Hermione flush prettily. He was certain it was from his words and not the heat of the sauna. One of his thighs was pressed between her legs and there seemed to be an extra slickness coming from her core. _Could it be? She was aroused, by him, and laying on top of him breathing heavily. It wasn't doing any good for his now straining cock._

"Oh, Severus, I'm so sorry. I am so clumsy. I was lost in my own thoughts and didn't see you coming out. You must want to wash yourself. Here let me try and get off you." Hermione sped through this all the while trying to push herself up off of him with as much dignity as possible.

Once they were both on their feet again it became almost painfully obvious that they were aroused. Neither could find an appropriate place to look and their eyes kept straying back to each other.

Severus waved a hand and the fire beneath the kiuas went out. He stepped under the showerhead and quickly scrubbed his body and hair. When he turned around Hermione had a towel wrapped around her body and her hair was magically piled into a knot at the top of her head. She was holding out a blanket- _the_ blanket, the one that Severus had admired in her store window before going in to ask for her assistance.

"I thought we could go out and lay in the sunshine on this blanket in your backyard. We can cast a privacy charm if you haven't already done so. Let the sun dry our bodies. What do you say?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sounds splendid. Why did you ever knit such a blanket? Slytherin house colours don't seem like they'd be something you would enjoy knitting." He took the blanket from her and led the way back out of the bathroom to the double doors that led out into the back garden from the bedroom. He spread the blanket in the middle of the garden on top of the soft grass and gestured for her to remove the towel and recline upon the blanket. "I have had the strongest privacy wards that I know of set on my back garden since the moment I made this place my home. We are perfectly protected from any nosy neighbours," he informed her.

Hermione neatly folded her towel and placed it at the edge of the blanket and turned to face him. "I made this blanket shortly after hearing of the arrival of a tall, dark, handsome stranger coming to town. For some reason I could not help but think of you. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to actually _be_ you. I thought you were dead. Harry said you died in the Shrieking shack. I was so stunned to see you standing in my shop that I nearly fell off my stool. How did you end up here?"

"Have a seat at least. If you want all the details of the story, it will take some time to tell," he replied.

They sat on the blanket under the bright sunshine and Severus recounted to her his making of the antivenom, how he consumed it, his travels after it took effect, but then suddenly he stopped talking. He had reached the point in his story where he met Greg and Rachel. He was unsure how to tell Hermione about what happened in that small home in Marchin, but knew that if he really truly wanted to start a relationship with her that he must be honest.

"You have twice asked me how I communicate with the locals. I acquired the ability to perform a Translation Charm, invented in Canada. I was going for my daily run in Marchin when I came across a local couple who were speaking English. Turns out that the lady of the house is Canadian and uses the Translation Charm taught to students in their sixth year at the Royal Academy to communicate with the locals. It helps one understand and makes one understood by others." Here Severus paused and looked unsure of how to tell the rest of this honestly sordid tale. "Turns out the couple had some, uh… shall we say particular kinks; have you heard of cuckolding in the modern sense of the word?" Severus asked while watching Hermione's face for any reaction at all. She shook her head. "Well, in its modern form cuckolding is when a couple decides that the woman shall be allowed to have as many lovers as she wants and shall be allowed to tell her partner about them or have him watch because the partner is not able to sexually satisfy all the needs that the woman has. Both parties consent to this and there are often even contracts drawn up to enforce the couple's rules." Severus said all this and then it was his turn to flush scarlet.

"Okay, that sounds very strange but I am not one to judge others on how they choose to live their lives, I just would never be able to do such a thing," Hermione announced vehemently.

"They wanted payment for teaching me the charm. Well, Rachel was sweet and would have given it to me just for keeping their secret-they live in a Muggle community see-but Greg suggested that she take me upstairs and show me her _charms_ and so she did. I slept with her. The deal was I get taught how to perform the charm on myself and others only if I gave Rachel as many orgasms as she could possibly handle. I think the grand total was 6 before she declared herself satisfied and allowed me to leave."

Hermione blushed again. _If he gave that other woman, this Rachel, six orgasms in one go, he must be a skilled lover. I can't wait anymore. I'm going to throw caution to the wind and go for it._ As soon as the thought left her mind she was leaning forward and pressing her lips to Severus's. He was stunned into immobility for a brief moment before he pulled her into his arms and returned her kiss with passion.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Severus was stunned. He could not believe what was happening. Hermione Granger, one third of the Golden Trio, was kissing him, passionately, in his own garden, on a blanket of Slytherin colours. He was kissing her back, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her chest to his. When it felt like he would die if he didn't get some oxygen in his lungs, he reluctantly pulled away. Pressing his forehead against hers, he whispered, "Where did that come from? I was horrid to you when you were a student and yet here I am in this beautiful place with an even more stunningly beautiful woman practically throwing herself at me after I confessed to sleeping with another man's wife. Most women would run for the hills under such circumstances."

"Oh, Severus, in the weeks since I knew you were my neighbour, my schoolgirl fantasy has blossomed into a womanly desire for a man. Hearing that you were able to please a total stranger enough to bring her to six orgasms, that speaks volumes of your virility and ability as a lover. What woman wouldn't desire such a man?" she responded, placing a quick kiss on each of his cheeks and his chin.

Hearing her extol his virtues and tell how her feelings had developed over the brief period of time that they had been neighbours, he knew he was going to shag her right here on this blanket underneath the blazing sun.

"I have come to desire you too. I see now how much of a woman you have become and the sight of you is incredibly arousing," he gestured to his now fully erect cock straining between his thighs. He brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. "This is your last chance: tell me now if you don't want me to make love to you, because right now that is the sole focus of my somewhat formidable mind." He chuckled softly to cover his nervousness that she might reject him even though she sat with him naked as the day she was born.

She pushed him gently down onto his back and laid next to him propped up on one elbow. "I want this Severus, more than I have wanted anything in a very long time." She leaned down to kiss him again, only for him to reach up and capture her mouth with his own and roll them over so he was hovering over top of her.

Severus gently placed feather light kisses on her lips, nose, eyelids, forehead, and chin before returning again to capture her lips and bathe them with his tongue until she opened for him and allowed him to give her a preview of what he wanted to do to her. He was determined not to rush this, but to savor every moment, every sound and expression this beautiful creature had to offer.

He braced himself on one arm and ran the other lightly up her side with just enough pressure that it didn't tickle. He circled her plump breast with his index finger until her nipple was standing taught and rosy at attention. Then he stopped plundering her mouth and licked and sucked down her jaw to her ear. "I am going to worship you, and once I am through you will never want to take another man into your body," he purred into her ear before nipping her earlobe and laving it with his tongue to soothe the sting.

He placed open-mouthed kisses along her neck to her collarbone, where he dipped his tongue into the hollow to taste the sweat that had gathered there. He did not linger long because her taut nipple was calling to him. Soon he had engulfed her entire areola in his warm mouth, tasting again the saltiness of her skin. Severus did not neglect the other nipple; he rolled it with his fingers mimicking the action of his tongue. He switched his head to worship her other breast in the same manner. Soft whimpers of pleasure murmured from her lips and were music to his ears.

Severus did not linger overlong at her breasts but continued kissing and tasting down her tummy, paying special attention to her navel, dipping his tongue into it, swirling around drawing a breathless giggle from Hermione's lips. His hands were never idle but caressed gently her sides and hips, working down to her thighs and spreading them apart as Severus made his way down her body.

As he neared what would one could have assumed to be his goal, Hermione thrust her hips up gently to encourage him, but he veered off to the right kissing down her thigh to her knee and further down to her ankle and toes. He kissed a path down her entire body before nipping gently at the instep and toes of her right foot. He switched sides and worked his way up, nipping at the toes on her left foot, drawing more gasps of delight from her before heading back up her left leg.

Once he reached the top of her left thigh, he finally headed for the soaked folds that had been beckoning to him with the scent of her desire for the past quarter hour. He blew softly on her folds, taking pleasure in the shiver that coursed through her. His cock was throbbing painfully now and he knew that he wouldn't last long enough to please her as she so deserved unless he used his talented tongue to bring her to paradise at least once first.

Ever so gently and with the utmost focus on the sounds she was uttering, he spread her folds with his middle fingers, sliding the index fingers up towards that hidden gem that he knew would bring her untold pleasure. Severus had never felt a woman so aroused and soaking for him as Hermione was. There was almost a puddle of her nectar on the blanket beneath her hips.

He looked up over her stomach and breasts, up further still to those delightful chocolate brown eyes and saw unrestrained desire in their depths and it stole his breath away. Then with no warning to her he lowered his mouth to her sodden folds and licked from opening to clit in one slow movement. He swirled his tongue around her clit and moved rapidly back down to lick and suck at her drenched folds with the fervor of a dying man who needed this delicious fluid to save his life.

Hermione's hands clenched painfully in the roots of Severus's hair as his tongue plied her flesh and brought her to newfound heights of pleasure. She never knew that having a man kiss and lick and suck at her most intimate place could bring such pleasure, and she could not contain the moans of pleasure issuing from her mouth as he licked and sucked and tongue-fucked her to a shuddering mind-blowing orgasm.

After he licked up all the juices delivered by her orgasm, he kissed his way up her body and kissed her passionately on the lips, sliding his tongue into her mouth and sharing the sweet musky taste of her release with her. He felt her hands slide down his back over his taut arse and around to his throbbing cock. Her small hand wrapped around the base and ever so gently tugged upwards. He thought he would expire from the gentleness in her touch, the softness of her skin, and the way she was ever so careful with his manhood. He reached down and wrapped his larger hand over the top of hers and showed her how to adjust her grip to be tighter and firmer on him just as he liked it.

Severus had not taken a lover since he cuckolded Greg way back in Belgium almost a year ago, so he was incredibly sensitive and ready to to burst;the feeling of Hermione's soft small hand on his throbbing cock was almost too much for him. Even after he helped her to know how he prefered to be touched, he still felt like he would nearly spill his seed right there all over her belly if he didn't stop her ministrations now and return to the process of worshiping her body.

She tried to put him in position to enter her but he pulled back. "I haven't worshiped all of you yet," he said huskily. He then gently rolled her over and began to kiss and caress her shoulders and back down to the nip of her waist and the swell of her buttocks. He placed a kiss in the center of each buttock and kneaded them gently before moving down the back of her thighs to the area behind her knees where he licked and nibbled gently. He kissed down her calves to the bottoms of her feet and then rolled her onto her back. Each touch of his mouth to her flesh drew gasps and whimpers of barely suppressed desire from Hermione's lips.

Severus spread Hermione's thighs and lined his throbbing cock up to her soaking pussy and teased her folds gently with the now purplish head. He reached down and took her hands in his and raised them above her head. Severus looked into her eyes, seeing and understanding the depth of her desire for him and he thrust into her.

He was completely sheathed in her pulsing, warm, wet chanel and it felt like he had come home. Never had any woman ever cradled his shaft so well as Hermione seemed to do. Severus stayed still for a few moments until Hermione impatiently thrust her hips up at him and dug her heels into his arse. The feeling of her small heels pressing into him spurred Severus into action: he pulled out almost entirely and thrust back home, angling his hips so that he crushed Hermione's pleasure bud against his pelvic mound.

Severus was soon pounding into her, still keeping her hands above her head he dipped his own head down and suckled on her nipples as her breasts bounced on her chest. Whimpers and moans were coming steadily from her but as Severus looked up he could see she was holding back, biting her bottom lip to keep from expressing the full extent of her pleasure.

"I told you, the garden is protected, that includes constant Silencing Charms of the strongest variety I know how to cast," he panted as he thrust into her, quickening his pace. "Let go, Hermione, scream and moan for me as loud as you want to. Let me hear what pleasure I bring you."

He released her hands and scooped up her torso into his arms, holding her close to him as he thrust into her willing flesh. He put his head on her shoulder and his moans and grunts filled her ears, eliciting her to unrestrained gasps and screams of pleasure as a second orgasm ripped through her.

Severus felt her pussy clench down on his cock, throbbing, pulsing, and undulating as her orgasm pulsed through her and he heard her scream reverberate off the wards he'd placed around his home. He had to slow his thrusts; this was just her second orgasms and he wanted her to have at least one more before he came. Hopefully they would go over that final hurdle into paradise together.

As Hermione came back down to earth after the second earth shattering orgasm, she felt a distinct change in Severus's thrusts. He was angling upward, aiming it seemed for that mythical g-spot she'd once heard girls in the dormitory talking about but which she was certain she did not possess.

A few strokes later and Severus hit some place deep inside her that caused her to see stars. The pleasure was pure and burning hot and brought her instantly closer to another orgasm.

"Severus, come with me!" she moaned, feeling him strike that new place inside her yet again, "I want to feel you fill me with your pleasure, please come for me!"

Hearing those words from her lips, Severus's hips snapped faster and faster as he lost control chasing his orgasm. He felt his balls draw up in preparation to release his seed, and tried to pull out only to find that Hermione had clamped down on him with her legs, keeping him deep inside of her. He thrust deeply one final time and great hot spurts of come coated her walls as she clamped down around him screaming his name to the heavens as a final orgasm was wrung from her body.

Dropping to his elbows above her and panting heavily, he laid his forehead against hers and looked deep into her eyes, surprised to see the unguarded love staring back at him from the depths of her chocolate eyes.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The next morning Hermione returned to Severus' potions lab and they continued testing various ways to get the Light Blocking Potion into the yarn. They worked the entire morning without success and with neither of them mentioning what happened the previous night in Severus' garden. After they had regained their breaths, Severus had the presence of mind to remove himself from her body and cast a cleansing charm on both of them. They lay on the blanket looking up at the puffy white clouds in the blue sky for a while before Hermione's flesh broke out in goosebumps and Severus suggested they return inside. Once inside they got dressed and had a cup of tea before making plans for Hermione to return in the morning to attempt more trials of the potion. She had gently pressed a good night kiss to his lips before slipping out the door and crossing the space between their buildings.

Now it was lunch time. Severus had not known how to bring up the subject that he desperately needed to discuss with Hermione while they were in the middle of such complex testing, but now that they were seated in Misty's café having some smoked salmon on rye bread, he felt safe to broach the topic. He looked around carefully before casting a charm to keep others from overhearing their conversation.

"Hermione, last night..." he trailed off, "was brilliant, amazing, and I have never had a better night in my entire life. But we must take precautions now, and next time they should be done before we get carried away into the throws of passion again."

"What do you mean?" she asked him. He raised an eyebrow. "Oh!" she blushed. "I am so sorry, Severus, I never meant to worry you! Honestly it slipped my mind and I completely forgot that I never got around to explaining to you how I ended up in Magikylä to start with."

"What does the reason you came to the village have to do with protecting against pregnancy?" Severus asked, completely confused by what Hermione was saying.

Hermione took a deep breath and steeled herself against possible rejection. "I'm… well… uh... I'm infertile." She breathed the words in barely more than a whisper.

Severus gaped at her.

"My uterus was irreparably damaged during the final battle. I found out a few months after. Ron proposed a few weeks after that and completely went nuts over the news when I told him. I wanted him to know before I agreed to marry him. His family, except the twins, treated me like I was leading him on and using him and trying to trap him into a childless marriage even though I told him the truth before I accepted his proposal. After a while they made my life such hell that I just had to get away somewhere that no one from England would ever find me unless I revealed to them where I was." Hermione said all this in quiet low voice but it grew stronger with every word until finally in her normal voice she said, "I quite understand if you want nothing to do with me, but a contraceptive is unnecessary since I no longer have the organs required to become pregnant." She looked straight into Severus's eyes for a moment before turning her gaze to the food on the plates in front of them.

Severus took a moment to collect his thoughts before reaching over and placing a finger under her chin to lift her eyes to his. There was a deep sadness and understanding in their obsidian depths. "I am profoundly sorry that such a terrible thing has happened to you," he said sincerely before moving from his chair to pull her into a much needed hug.

Into her ear he whispered, "I am profoundly glad that we have not made a mistake by overlooking the potion last evening, but I would not give you up for anything. I never felt as much love and passion in a woman's arms as I felt with you. It is of no consequence that you cannot have children, as I have never desired a family of my own. I did not believe I would live to see the end of the war and I would consider myself as beyond blessed to have you as a friend and lover as well as a neighbour, but at least you will always be my friend."

"Oh, Severus, thank you so much for understanding and not judging me too harshly. I will always be your friend. I too found passion and love beyond measure last night. I had no idea sex could be so fantastic. You have shown me paradise in your arms and I cannot wait to return there again if you so chose to welcome me back into your bed. Now, let's sit and finish our lunch so we can return to our project." Hermione released him from her arms and took her seat, briefly wiping her cheeks and eyes with her napkin to remove the traces of her tears of joy at Severus's whole-hearted acceptance of her.

Severus canceled the privacy charm and they finished their lunch quickly. After returning their trays to the collection point they bid Misty good day and walked hand in hand across the street to Severus's shop.

Once inside, Severus brewed yet another batch of the Light Blocking Potion and as he did so, Hermione sat lost in thought.

"I think I've figured it out! Or at least thought of a new thing for us to try," she exclaimed halfway through the brewing process.

"Do enlighten me," Severus said in his usual clipped tone.

"After the potion is brewed, you cast a spell to levitate part of it into a floating disc, and I cast to levitate the yarn through it," Hermione said. "I think if there is less yarn in contact with the potion at one time then the reaction will happen at a slower rate and therefore it might not burn up."

"Well, at least it's worth a try and it would ensure that the yarn strand was evenly coated in the potion," he conceded.

After the potion was completed, they took their places and cast their levitation charms on their respective targets. Hermione guided the yarn through the disc of potion and was surprised to see it come out the other side intact and fully coated in the slippery potion. She used her wand to coil it into a graceful coil on the table. There seemed to be a delay in the potion soaking into the yarn, but at least it wasn't burning up into a melted mess.

"Let's leave this here and have a cup of tea. We could use the break," suggested Severus.

"All right, but I'll brew it," Hermione agreed.

Severus led her into the kitchen and showed her the tea things before searching through the cupboards for something to serve with the hot beverage.

They sat out on the terrace in companionable silence with their tea and some jaffa cookies that Severus found for them.

After a long while, Hermione broke the silence. "I never expected to find someone I knew here, or someone I would love. I expected that I would live here and learn the language and grow into an old maid who made lace doilies and sweaters."

"What an uneventful life you had imagined for yourself. I cannot imagine you ever living such a boring life. You had so much adventure in your Hogwarts years," came his silky reply.

"After all that adventure, I could really use the downtime, to do what I want at my own pace, read books if I want, or maybe write one, crochet and knit and enjoy the company of my neighbours. I know I'm young, but I feel like I lived so much in those formative years that I am ready for a nice peaceful life here in this beautiful village on this beautiful lake."

"I too desire a quiet life, quite similar to the one you have just described. Perhaps it would be nice to spend such a life with a likeminded person?" His voice held just a slight note of question to it.

"I look forward to seeing where this friendship and partnership takes us." After a few more minutes of silence Hermione said. "We should check on the progress."

They returned to his lab and saw that the potion had been absorbed by the yarn and it appeared to be completely ready to attempt working into an eye mask. Hermione waved her wand at the appropriately sized hook and it flew into the air and began turning the pile of yarn into a beautiful eye mask. There was enough yarn to create two exactly identical masks.

"Let's take them outside and test them," Hermione suggested. She grabbed them up and headed towards the garden. She lay down on the blanket still spread from their activities the previous evening and put on her eyemask. It blocked out the sun completely; no light, not even a slight sliver, was getting past the magic imbued into the yarn from Severus's potion. She felt him lay down on the blanket beside her.

"Your idea worked," came his rumbled praise after a few minutes. "We can start selling them to the villagers tomorrow night."

They took off their eye masks and walked to the town square. Both had forgotten that it was Midsummer, and every resident of the village stood in the square when they walked in. A huge bonfire was lit. Severus pointed his wand at his throat and magically magnified his voice. "We have been successful in our attempts to find a light blocking solution to help you sleep. We have imbued yarn with a light blocking potion and then Hermione has knit the yarn into eye masks that work brilliantly. We shall go back to our shops and work through the night to create many more of these. They shall be available for purchase from The Needle Village Shoppe tomorrow by midday." He removed the charm then and they bowed to the thunderous applause that greeted his announcement before walking hand in hand back down Main Street to their buildings to start another batch of potion to create more eye masks so they could begin sales on time tomorrow.


	10. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

 _December_

It was Finnish Independence day and the villagers were celebrating. Severus and Hermione were in one of the restaurants having a nice dinner when he got down on one knee and proposed the idea of marriage. Hermione agreed, knowing that their hearts and lives were leading them down similar life paths and that he loved her and she him more than she knew it was possible to love.

 _Midsummer's Day the following year_

Hermione wore a beautiful light gown of sheer white, trimmed with lace she had made herself. Severus wore a traditional summer suit of beige. Fred and George were the only British wizards to attend the wedding because they were the only ones Hermione trusted with the knowledge of her location. Misty stood with Hermione as her witness and the happy couple became Mr. and Mrs. Snape under a cloudless blue sky on the shores of Sotkajärvi.

 _Five years later_

Having made their mark on the small village of Magikylä with their magical eye masks six years earlier, the Snapes were now a prominent family in the wizarding village. They had eventually shared the Translation Charm with the locals so they could communicate freely and openly with no barriers of language to overcome.

The two buildings had been knocked down and rebuilt as one larger building spanning the two lots. The residential quarters and private lab at the back and the combined apothecary and knitwear shop at the front. Locals visited SS Potions and More regularly and respected the owners. The business was so good that they regularly shipped products to other witches and wizards across the Arctic circle who were in need of some of their specially developed products to help them survive in the beautiful but challenging landscape that was their home.

Hermione and Severus celebrated Midsummer each and every year by returning to the back garden and making love upon that green and silver blanket where their love had first blossomed all those years ago.

Fin

A/N: The prompt from SSHG prompt fest Summer 2015 as given by iqeret. Original posting can be found on livejournal.

Prompt: Snape opens a store of some sort (potions? made to measure robes? tea?) in a rather obscure part of the world (random tiny town in the UK is fine, but _not_ in the Americas, please). One day, sometime after he has settled in, he goes next door to buy something he needs, only to find out that his neighbouring shopkeeper is none other than Hermione Granger


End file.
